Five suspects give police the slip

The motorbike is suspected to be a stolen vehicle. It bore a fake registration number. Efforts are on to locate its owner on the basis of the engine and chassis numbers.

Meanwhile, taking serious note of the dacoities in Kothrud and Chandan Nagar within a short span of 24 hours, Pune Police Commissioner K.K. Kashyap has imposed nakabandi exercise all over the city for an indefinite period.

Besides combing various areas, policemen will check vehicles throughout the night as a part of the security exercise.Kashyap said he intended to continue the exercise as long as dacoities continued. The exercise will involve at least 60 per cent of the manpower with Pune police, he said.

He said the police were considering a change in the pattern of maintaining vigil. Cooperation of public was being sought in the form of vigilance committees in patrolling sensitive areas. These have already been formed in Hadapsar, Nigdi and Bhosari areas.

Kashyap said the Pune police have zeroed in on three separate gangs of dacoits operating in the city and its fringes. Efforts are on to track them. “However, they were highly mobile using light vehicles such as cars and jeeps as well as two-wheelers, he said.

Meanwhile, Vilas Shahane and his brother Ravindra, the two jewellers injured in firing by dacoits who had targeted their Alankar Jewellers shop at Chandan Nagar yesterday, are still undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The hospital authorities said though the two victims are still in the intensive care unit, they are responding well to treatment.